In a large bowl mix eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes until pale, fluffy and very creamy.

Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt at once and mix on slow speed until incorporated.

Then pour in olive oil, yoghurt and vanilla and mix through.

Fold in zucchini and chocolate.

Pour your mixture into your loaf tin(s) and bake for 65 minutes. Check if the chocolate bread is ready by inserting a wooden skewer. If there is still wet dough on the skewer leave it in the oven for longer. (mine needed 20 minutes more when baked in one loaf tin)

Hey there!

The week is finally over!! BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!!! It was such a long and hard week, having 4 exams to study for and not being even sure if I passed. But it’s over now!!!

I am feeling so much better already even if I still have another coloquial one next week.

So I thought it is finally the time to share another one of my scrumptious birthday cakes! My birthday was already 1,5 months ago but I still hadn’t the time to share this recipe with you. The Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes had to come first 😉

Here I have the Cherry Chocolate Cake recipe for you!! The cake was loved very much too, it was the one who had the fewest pieces left! 😉

Cherry Chocolate Cake

100g dark chocolate finely grated with a big knife ( just try to slice very thin slices of the chocolate, it will break into ‘grated’ pieces)

200g butter, softened (a little less then 1 cup)

175g (3/4 cup) sugar

1 package vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon extract)

1 pinch of salt

4 eggs

125g (1 cup) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g grounded almonds (a little less then 1 cup)

Directions:

1. Put the cherries into a colander and drain well. If you want you can keep the sirup but it will not be used in the recipe. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Butter a springform pan well.

2. Beat butter and sugars with salt until foamy with a hand mixer. This may take a few minutes. Add eggs one by one, mix well in between.

3. Now add flour and baking powder. Stir the dry ingredients on top of the wet ones a little with a spoon to mix up. Then use your hand mixer to incorporate.

4. Finally add chocolate and almonds and mix.

5. Add a little bit of your batter into the springform pan and flatten with the back of a spoon. Put the cherries on top and take care that no one of the cherries touches the rim of the pan. Now add the rest of the batter on top (not all in one place – put big dollops all over the cake) and then spread it out and cover the cherries.

6. Bake the cake for 45 minutes. When wooden skewer comes out clean the cake is ready. Let it cool for 20 minutes and then remove the springform pan.

7. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cake with the help of a small colander. Let cool completely and Enjoy!! 🙂

Hey there!

How are you? My ‘vacation’ time that I spent at my parents house is over and I am back in working mode. There will be more exams soon!! I am not looking forward to that – but at least those will be the last ones I have to write for my Masters Degree.

Let’s talk about more pleasant topics. Reese’s peanut butter cups! I have heard so much about them but never actually tried one of my own until January, when a friend of mine returned from a trip to New York. She took several packages with her because she liked them so much!! I have read a lot about them on all the american food blogs I read – you clearly can’t read those blogs without stumbling on them 😉 In Germany it is very difficult to get Reese’s at all. I could imagine that they are sold on the internet, but it never felt important enough for me to try. But still: sweet peanut butter and chocolate together sounded fantastic!!

So when I tried my first Peanut Butter cups I just thought: Luckily I don’t have a whole package, they are addictive!

Last week my friend celebrated her birthday and I wanted to give her something made by myself. I knew she already ate up all her peanut butter cups and I have read that it was not so difficult to make those on my own, so I just tried! I think they went really well!! All the taste testers said they liked them very much! I used dark chocolate which seems to be a little less sugary then the one used in the original one and also the chocolate was hard after the 1,5 hours the cups sat on the balcony to set. I guess you could whisk a little bit of cream into the chocolate to make it a little softer if you want the cups to be more like the originals, but I liked them the way they were!!

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cups like Reese’s

Ingredients:

100g peanut butter smooth

50g butter, softened

30g powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

400g Kouvertüre Zartbitter (dark chocolate)

about 25 small paper cups (mini muffins cups)

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler with 25g butter.

2. Prepare your piping bag or like I used a frosting plastic bag. I just used a big glas and secoured the bag with with a rubber band.

3. Prepare filling: Whisk peanut butter and the other 25g of butter until well combined. Add the sugars. Mix very well.

4. Pour chocolate into plastic bag and twist the end of the bag so that no chocolate can come out. You can see this on the pictures!

5. Cut one tiny edge of the plastic bag and pipe a little bit of chocolate (just as much as you need to cover the bottom) into the paper cups.

6. Place some peanut butter mixture into the middle of the paper cup. Pour more chocolate on top.

7. Let it sit for at least 45 min. It sets quicker when you put the peanut butter cups somewhere cold like on the balcony in winter. I had some chocolate left which I just piped onto some aluminium foil and let it harden. Next time I need chocolate I just melt it again.